The treatment of chronic osteomyelitis is laborious and ill defined. We report the case of a 57-year-old woman admitted to hospital with Staphylococcus aureus septicemia due to relapse of osteomyelitis after an interval of 49 years. By surgical debridement, suction drainage and 8 months of high-dose antibiotic treatment we were able to control the infection in terms of clinical symptoms and laboratory parameters.